CAMBUSLANG Rangers boss Alan Wardlaw is urging his players to claim at least 30 points from their remaining 16 league games.

Saturday's home fixture with St Anthony’s was called off due to the overnight cold snap on Friday.

And now Alan is urging his players re-focus their attentions on this weekend's crucial league fixture when they travel to make the short trip to Shettleston. The Lang were beaten 2-1 at Somervell Park when the sides met in October.

The gaffer said: “We're going to Shettleston on Saturday - and it's never an easy place to go to, even when they're doing badly in the league. At the moment they're up in second or third place, so it will be tough.

“When we played them earlier in the season we were awful - really, really awful. I don't think we managed more than one shot at goal during the 90 minutes.

“But in the last few games we've shown we're capable of doing a lot better than we've done so far this season, as we've been able to raise our game. Hopefully we can start giving teams more of a run for their money.

“I'm looking for us to take something from the game - we need to get points on the table - there's no point getting pats on the back and coming away with nothing.

“We're getting to the serious end of the season and we need to start climbing the table.

“Looking between now and the rest of the season there's 48 points to play for, and we're looking at a worse-case scenario of taking at least half of them to see us safe. More would take us towards promotion.

“If we took 30 points from what's left would certainly put us towards the top end of the table.

“We've got to aim for that, but we're not in it to survive - we want to finish as high up the table as we can.”

The Lang were unable to pick up any more points to add to their total on Saturday with the postponement, but there was never really any chance of the game being played when it came to the tail end of last week.

Alan said: “I'd spoken to groundsman Gordon Hendry on Thursday night and he said it was so soft they could only work on one end of the park. He didn't think anything would change before the Friday night, and the pitch needed work done on it as it had taken one hell of a kicking in the game against Shotts last week.

“But ultimately it was a frozen pitch that caused the game to be called off officially on Saturday morning.

“When the pitch is in that condition, and it's too heavy, it's just not conducive to anybody playing good football on it. If it's too soft, it's best to put it off.”

With the fixture having been postponed, the side instead kept their match fitness and sharpness up with a friendly in East Kilbride.

It also gave the manager a chance to take a look at some trialists, and he's convinced two of them to put pen to paper.

Alan said: “Rather than having a day off we played a friendly against an East Kilbride amateur select team up at K Park, which gave us a chance to take a look at a few trialists, and we won 3-1.

“It was a useful exercise, as we've signed up goalkeeper Chris Treacy, who was once on the books of Kilmarnock.

“I've also brought in Mark Batchelor, whose dad I used to play with at East Kilbride Thistle. He's very similar to Ross Barr but it more forward thinking, but on Saturday he kept it simple, winning tackles and looking good in support to the front players. He's a fit lad but hadn't played in a couple of weeks, and once he gets rid of that rustiness, he'll be a good signing.

“They both showed what they were capable of, and are good additions to the squad.

“We're going to have to bolster the squad as we've lost a few players in the last couple of weeks, and need to keep the squad numbers up. Keeper Colin McGraw left the club, so Chris will replace him, while Mark will come into the midfield allowing Mark Bishop to drop back into the defence to replace Graham Doak.

“We still need a couple of players to bring us up to the ideal squad size so we've enough, especially when the games will be coming thick and fast when the spring arrives.

“It's easier said than done, though. You could sign five amateur players to put on the bench, but I don't want that - I want players who will challenge for a starting place. We need to have confidence in them, to be able to throw them straight into the starting line-up.”